as in masculine
having qualities or traits that are traditionally considered inappropriate for a girl or woman
her father thought that ice hockey was a little too tomboyish for her, but her mother and older brother encouraged her to take it up
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Recent Examples of tomboyish
But yesterday, Rihanna did a sartorial 180, ditching her tomboyish ’fit for a girly, baby pink look.
—
Hannah Jackson, Vogue, 5 Sep. 2025
Jacobson lends her voice to Shira Schwooper, the tomboyish middle child and only daughter.
—Allison Degrushe Published, EW.com, 22 Aug. 2025
Hannah Jackson, Vogue, 5 Sep. 2025
Jacobson lends her voice to Shira Schwooper, the tomboyish middle child and only daughter.
—Allison Degrushe Published, EW.com, 22 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tomboyish
Adjective
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His womenswear collection, introduced in 1975, quickly became known for easy shapes and masculine cuts with feminine qualities.—
Luisa Zargani,
Footwear News,
4 Sep. 2025
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Set on a white-run construction site in West Africa, the story follows an edgy foreman anxiously awaiting his bride, whose presence meets resistance from a cocksure engineer clinging to the hyper-masculine status quo.—
Naman Ramachandran,
Variety,
4 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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The new girl’s unladylike bravado ensures that she will be asked to board with the Brown girl.—
Chris Bohjalian,
Washington Post,
17 Aug. 2023
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In fact, one of the choicest bites of the entire meal was an unladylike gnaw of the generous gristle on a bone followed by a spoonful of marrow-thickened soup, bobbing with cubes of cleansing daikon.—
Jiayang Fan,
The New Yorker,
2 Sep. 2022
Adjective
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Dior’s collection referenced the H-line created by its founder Christian Dior for Fall-Winter 1954-1955 – a controversial silhouette at the time as its flattened shape appeared, for some, unfeminine.—
Alice Pfeiffer,
CNN,
28 Jan. 2025
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The intention behind this final postcard may have been, yet again, to paint the fight for suffrage as absurd, to make suffragists seem like willful, unfeminine animals.—
Natalie Kinkade,
JSTOR Daily,
25 Sep. 2024
Cite this Entry
“Tomboyish.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tomboyish. Accessed 11 Sep. 2025.
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